J. J. Wilson Sonoma State College

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J. J. Wilson Sonoma State College 00 Number 10 Spring and Summer 1978 Having explored the entire experimental gamut of TO THE READERS modernism in one astonishing decade, 1910 to 1920, it remained to him to attempt to resolve that apparent dualism It has been a special pleasure editing this issue of the Virginia between representational and non-representational art which Woolf Miscellany during my stay in England. Though it meant he considered misleading and culturally inhibiting. This belief delaying the publication considerably, the perspectives added effectively left him in a situation of semi-exile on the outskirts make VWM more truly international. We hope that writers from of the 'official' British art world with which, in any case, he abroad will continue to enrich our understanding of Virginia had little sympathy. His influence was consistently felt Woolf and invite them to send any brief written contribution (no however for over half a century, both as a teacher - though no more than 1200 words) to VWM'snext editor, Jane Marcus, The teacher was ever less didactic - and as a prime mover behind Newberry Library, 60 W.Walton St., Chicago, Illinois 60610. Her the development of such institutions as C.E.M.A., the A.I.A., deadline will have to be soon (October 2), if we are to return to The Euston Road School, and the Arts Council of Great the regular publishing schedule. Britain. There are so many old and new books that need reviewing, so Duncan was a great encourager. He got people to do things. many notes and queries we all have, as well as jokes, diatribes, In this respect an example which characterizes a lifetime's poems, art work, etc., "so much still to be pondered about," as work is provided by the Omega Workshops, where, while the Washington ST AR recently said in a review of Bloomsbury Roger Fry was out chatting up patrons, he assembled a host of books, that every issue, even enormous ones like Winter 1977, has talented and under-employed painters to the task of to leave out a lot of good material. To do otherwise would stretch establishing a kind of design which was at once adventurous the VWM format and budget to the breaking point As it is now, and intensely serious . There were few early twentieth century even with this relatively slender issue, we are operating in the red, artists in England whom he did not help at some time or anticipating a flood of donations from all of the readers who have another. not previously contributed to float us into the black again. Please Unfortunately he received all too Iittle encouragement send what you can, as soon as possible, so that VWM's credit will himself. He seemed remote to the generation between the two continue good at our wonderful printers. We would like to take World Wars, whilst to his own contemporaries he was doomed this occasion, in fact, to thank our skillful and faithful helpers at to appear the eternal 'wunderkind', defiantly waving the very Sonoma State's Reprographics, without whom ... brushes for which Bloomsbury was tarred. It was Duncan's And again to add that without YOUR donations, future issues of fate never quite to fit in. Nonetheless, the specific the VWM will not be possible. Karen Petersen, who coordinates development of English Art Deco would be inconceivable our mailing volunteers, has asked us to announce that back issues without the example of his work, together with that of of most of the VWM are available to new subscribers. Simply Vanessa Bell, whilst their Post-Impressionist paintings write VWM at the regular mailing address--and you might enclose represent a sadly neglected area of European art. At the same a donation. time it was Duncan Grant's special achievement to effect a j. J. Wilson local continuity between the British 'Aesthetic' Movement of Sonoma State College the late nineteenth century, and the School of Paris in the early twentieth. In a sense his virtuosity in so many fields of activity - fabrics, ceramics, interior design, woodcuts, theatre work, book illustration, easel painting, etc. - worked against his DUNCAN GRANT, 1885-1978 reputation. He was too various. For the English tend to expect their artists at least to be decent enough to stick to one thing Duncan Grant died on the 8th of May at the age of 93. His at a time, and to go on duplicating themselves continually central role in the original Bloomsbury Group, and the without any awkward and irritating evidence of innovation or extraordinary range of his friendships with so many leading change, which Duncan undoubtedly saw, with Donne, as "the figures in the intellectual and artistic life of our century, has nursery/ Of musicke, joy, life, and eternity." He YvOu!dkeep ironically tended to overshadow his own very real on changing. achievements as a painter and designer. For that reason I do Duncan Grant then was.. passionately committed to "the not propose to explore those affiliations in this brief tribute to silent kingdom of paint." Like so many of his friends he felt a an artist who, as much as any other, was responsible for the strong distinction between the practices of painting and of introduction of modernist art into England. At the same time writing. This is perhaps a matter for some regret, since his it can hardly be sufficiently stressed that his work was at all letters and occasional writings show a gift for words which times intimately related both to his immediate society and to comes as no surprise to anyone who knew him. Indeed, his his own most remarkable personality. As John Piper wrote as conversation was often no less giddy with wit and imagination long ago as 1931: "no British artist has ever preached less or than that of Virginia Woolf herself . What was he doing for prophecied more." (The Listener, 24th June, 1931} Christmas 1976? -"Oh! That AUDACIOUS day!" Approached by someone at his 85th birthday party: "I met you 30 years realize that when W. B. Yeats visited Lady Dorothy Wellesley at ago ... "· "Then so did I!" As an undergraduate in 1970 I was Penns in the Rocks he dined in a room designed by Vanessa Bell once sent into Lewes with a hastily made up shopping list on and Duncan Grant, with their murals on the walls; illustrations of which I found the word 'brainwave', sandwiched between the room are included. cheese, wine-vinegar, and turps! Virginia Woolf appears in Mr. Shane's study primarily as His humour and generosity are legendary. Never a rich man, Vanessa Bell's sister, and Vanessa Bell herself as "the pivotal he understood poverty from first-hand experience. To the end figure" in Bloomsbury. I prefer to see the two sisters as a kind of of his life he received visitors cordially, if sometimes double center for the group, but the emphasis given here to the quizzically, being far more interested in the world they elder is extremely useful and informative. As Mr. Shone states in brought to him than in plunging back into his own spectacular his introduction, he has chosen to give most space to the past. For this reason he was sometimes bamboozled by the previously unrecorded activities of the artists and their friends, unscrupulous, and occasionally exploited. focusing particularly on the 1910-20 decade. Here again the Whether painting the chickens at Wisset blue in 1916 or emphasis is well-placed and extremely useful. Roger Fry and Clive thinking of "improving" the dahlias at Charleston fifty years Bell figure prominently at this time and later; other artists who later, Duncan's whole life, like his art, was a delicious blend of worked with the Bloomsbury figures, like Keith Baynes and fact and fantasy. The variety and plenitude of his career, Stephen Tomlin, also appear, as does Wyndham Lewis in all his together with his serious questioning of the relation between antagonism. David Garnett and Maynard Keynes are also evident Art and Decoration in our times, will guarantee him a in their impprtant supporting roles. significant place in the final telling of the art of this century. Duncan was extremely drawn to Keats's lines concerning The apparatus of the book is also well thought out and the "holiness of the heart's affections and the truth of the attractively presented. Mr. Shane's selected bibliography includes imagination," I can think of few people who have attempted catalogues. There are detailed chronologies provided for both more gently or with greater success to live up to that ideal. It Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. And the blue-flowered boards of is marvellous to know that he managed only three weeks the cover, in true Bloomsbury fashion, "are adapted from a before he died, in spite of great infirmity, to visit the Cezanne design by Duncan Grant, 1968." retrospective in Paris. He was buried, as he wished, in the Elizabeth Heine church-yard at Firle, next to Vanessa Bell. The University of Texas at San Antonio Simon Watney Polytechnic of Central London Designs ·by Duncan Grant Two Books on Bloomsbury art reviewed: Richard Shone, BLOOMSBURY PORTRAITS: Noel Carrington, CARRINGTON: PAINTINGS, DRAWINGS, VANESSA BELL, DUNCAN GRANT AND THEIR CIRCLE AND DECORATIONS (Oxford: Oxford Polytechnic Press, (New York: E.P. Dutton; Oxford, Phaidon 1976) 1978) Wonderful simply for picture-gazing, with its 170 illustrations This book too is handsomely illustrated (eight color plates) and (eight color plates}, this study is also a mine of information about well-produced, albeit expensively, as a first venture by the new Bloomsbury activities. Mr. Shone has had access to much Oxford Polytechnic Press.
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